Terracotta female figure from the Sanctuary of Collado de los Jardines, Despeñaperros (Santa Elena, Jaén, España)

Female figure in terracotta elaborated with bivalvo mold, representing an veiled woman holding a naked and upright child in her left arm. Both are depicted frontally, in clear connection, because they tilt their faces looking for contact, complicity that is also evident in the way the child rests on the mother’s shoulder. The woman’s attire is composed of a neckline in beak, long to the feet and a veil, which falls open on her head, and which she holds with her right hand. Under the headdress you can see curly hair and two tirabuzones that fall parallel to the shoulders. This is an example that has the most immediate parallel in the terracotta of the sanctuary of the Algaida, dated to the IV-II centuries B.n.e., identified as a nutrífera divinity in one of the formulations of the Mediterranean mother goddess. It is a model of expression typical of the central and western Mediterranean present in the Iberian world from the fourth century B.n.e. and whose first prototypes could be reproduced from imported molds. However, we also have later parallels, such as those documented in Aldolecar or Abdalix Valley, identified as Hispano-Roman productions that can be framed in a time frame that includes the second century B.n.e.-I d.n.e. Chronology: Centuries IV B.C.-I A.D. Dimensions: Height 22cm The Iberian sanctuary of Collado de los Jardines is located in a rocky coat of Sierra Morena, in the so-called Escalón de la Meseta, on the northern edge, where a series of quartcitic saws, aligned from east to west and cut by streams in deep moose or narrow valleys (Despeñaperros, Valmayor), form an abrupt and elevated relief on its surroundings. The foundation of the sanctuary of Collado de los Jardines, as well as that of the Cueva de la Lobera, is fixed at the beginning of the fourth century B.C., when in the archeological record a new process of appropriation of the political territory is observed at the hands of one of the great oppida of Upper Guadalquivir: Cástulo. This Iberian city leads a project of expansion and control of the easternmost area of the province of Jaén, in which the sanctuaries of Collado de los Jardines and Cueva de la Lobera become key pieces: ideological delimiters and physical borders, at the same time as pilgrimage spaces in which the important rites were developed for the communities that integrated this political territory. With respect to its territorial location, both spaces of worship are associated with two of the main corridors of access to the Upper Guadalquivir and, therefore, to the territory of Cástulo. This location demonstrates the link between these sacred enclaves and the natural steps. Castellar is related to one of the main communication routes of Alto Guadalquivir that connects this area with Ciudad Real through Villanueva de los Infantes. An important corridor that has been identified with the Via Heraclea. With regard to the road that runs through Collado de los Jardines, recent works define it as a possible secondary route, related to the Roman mining of the Sierra Morena region and with the probable location of a republican rural structure in the environment of the sanctuary. From a structural and organizational point of view, the sanctuary is organized around several terraces and relates to the existence of springs of water, which links him to cults of curative type, but also to rituals related to the passage of age, of great ritual importance in the set of practices documented in these contexts. In relation to the cult developed, a large number of bronze exvotes have been documented. The exvotes, in their numerous figurative variants (among them also the zoomorphic ones) and schematic, represent the idea of personalized offering of the dedicator and her requests that are offered in substitution and idealization of the prayer. They are elements that advertise the benefactor character of the deity or deities, images made for the divinity, understood within a community or community, because society reflects in them their attitudes, their behaviors. Regarding the possible existence of an iberian town associated with the sanctuary, the only evidence currently observed in surface is located at the summit of Cerro del Castillo. This small site, hardly classifiable as an oppidum, is protected by natural defenses and is very deteriorated by an intense clandestine activity. The result of this illegal activity is a chaos of stones belonging to the buildings that have been dismantled during years of plundering along with a reduced presence of ceramics of iberian tradition. Although it is difficult to characterize the iberian and Roman settlement, this objective is complicated by dealing with the archeological problems posed by the existence of a castle in this area that would give name to the hill that dominates the sanctuary. Bibliography: Corzo, R. (2000): “The sanctuary of the Algaida (Sanlúcar de Barrameda, Cádiz) and the formation of its artisan workshops,” in B. Costa and J. H. Fernández (Eds.), Phoenician-Punic Sanctuaries in Iberia and its infl uence in the indigenous cults. XIV Phenician-Punic Archaeology Conference (Eivissa, 1999) Eivissa: 147-184. Rísquez, C., and Rueda, C. (2013) Iberian Sanctuaries: Territory, rituality and memory. In Proceedings of the Congress El Santuario de la Cueva de la Lobera de Castellar. 1912-2012. Wheel, C. (2011): Territory, worship and iconography in the Iberian sanctuaries of Alto Guadalquivir (ss. IV a.n.e.-I d.n.e.), CAAI texts no. 3, University of Jaén, Jaén. Wheel, C. (2012): Iberian Exvotes. Vol, II: The Gómez-Moreno Institute. Rodríguez-Acosta Foundation (Granada), R. Olmos, C. Risquez and A. Ruíz (Dir.), Institute of Gienneses Studies, Jaén. Rueda, C. and Rísquez, C. (2016): “Religious transformations in the Iberian sanctuaries of Upper Guadalquivir: the changes in the female votive image (centuries IV-I B.C.),” in A. Russo e F. Guarneri (Ed.): Santuari Mediterranei tra Este e Ru. Interazioni e contatti culturali, Rome: 389-392.